A seven-under-par first round of 65 has got Matt Wallace’s Volvo China Open challenge off to fine start in Beijing.

Since winning his second European Tour title at the Hero Indian Open in March, the Moor Park professional has missed the cut at his last two tournaments. But it could prove to be a very good week at Topwin Golf and Country Club for Wallace if he can sustain the level of scoring he demonstrated over the opening 18 holes to leave him in a share of second heading into round two.

Starting from the 10th hole, the 28-year-old was quickly into the scoring groove with birdies at the par four 11th, par five 12th and par four 15th to quickly move to three-under.

A bogey four at 16 briefly halted Wallace’s progress, but he was to go ‘out’ in a four-under score of 32 after two more birdies at the par four 17th and par five 18th.

Although a three at the par four third was cancelled out by a six at the fourth, the Pinner-based professional finished his opening round in style with a superb eagle three at the eighth followed by a birdie three at the ninth to sit one shot behind leader Daxing Jin.

"I made a couple of bogeys, which were probably mental errors rather than swing errors, but I'm swinging it great and really happy after today," Wallace said in a post-round interview broadcast on Sky Sports.

"I have been trying to shorten my swing for a while, it's been an ongoing thing since I've been working with [fellow European Tour professional] Robert Rock and I've never really managed to do it, but last week I found something.

"It's a weird feeling, I feel like I'm swinging it halfway [back] but I'm not losing any distance and I'm just hitting better shots. I had two missed cuts but I was trending in the right direction. I was swinging it nicely, hitting some good shots.

"Last week was a different test playing with the Ryder Cup captain Mr Bjorn [in the first two rounds of the Hassan Trophy] and I just tried to impress him too much and I'll learn from that."

Callum Shinkwin looked set to join his Moor Park club-mate in the upper reaches of the leaderboard for much of his first round, but a disappointing finish saw him end the day on one-under.

Fresh from a good week in Morocco at Trophee Hassan II where he finished in a share of 13th, the Bushey golfer raced out of the blocks and by his sixth hole, the 15th, he was already at four-under after picking up shots at the par four 10th, 11th and 15th holes and the par three 12th.

A fifth birdie followed at the par four fifth, but then Shinkwin’s opening round went downhill with back-to-back bogeys at the par three sixth and par four seventh followed by a double bogey seven on the eighth to leave him in a share of 47th heading into the second round.